Call service providers
To support audio and video calls, Unblu relies on call service providers. Two services are external:
-
Azure Communication Services (ACS) (preview status)
-
Vonage Video API (formerly TokBox)
One is provided as an Unblu Cloud service or may be installed on-premises:
Data encryption
All the call service providers offer WebRTC-based solutions. However, their encryption capabilities differ depending on their use of a media server, also known as a Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU).
- ACS
-
When using Unblu with ACS, you must use the ACS media server. Since ACS media servers don’t allow end-to-end encryption and the unencrypted audio and video data is processed on their servers, you need full approval for ACS to store personally identifiable information (PII) in your organization.
- LiveKit
-
LiveKit is essentially a media server, also known as a Selective Forwarding Unit (SFU). LiveKit currently doesn’t support end-to-end media encryption yet. Therefore, if you are using Unblu Cloud, you need full approval for Unblu to process personally identifiable information (PII). If you set up a LiveKit server on-premises in your own network, there is end-to-end encryption.
- Vonage
-
Vonage offers an IP proxy feature to route all internet traffic (except for media streams) via a proxy server. A media server can also be configured to add a technical participant to a conversation so as to record and archive the conversation. If this is done, then necessarily the encryption between the two original parties is interrupted. To maintain end-to-end encryption, consider using Unblu’s conversation recording feature with relayed Vonage Video API sessions instead.
Using custom TURN servers
Like audio and video calls, Unblu’s universal co-browsing and server-based document co-browsing features require a TURN server. You may therefore want to use the same TURN servers for all these features. To do so, set the configuration properties for your call server provider:
-
LiveKit: Set com.unblu.conversation.call.livekit.customTurnEnabled to
true. -
Vonage:
-
Set com.unblu.conversation.call.tokbox.customTurnEnabled to
true. -
Set com.unblu.conversation.call.tokbox.sessionType to
RELAYED.
-
That way, Unblu establishes audio and video calls using the TURN server or servers specified in the configuration property com.unblu.webrtc.iceServers.
Configuring video background blur
| Video background blur is currently supported for LiveKit and Vonage implementations. |
Unblu can blur the background of video call streams. The feature is enabled by default. To disable the feature for your account, set com.unblu.messenger.videoBackgroundReplacementEnabled to false.
You can specify how the video background blur feature should work for different conversation templates:
-
Set the types of participant the Blur background button is available to with the configuration property com.unblu.conversation.call.enableVideoBackgroundReplacement.
-
You can automatically blur the background for different types of participant with the configuration property com.unblu.conversation.call.startWithVideoBackgroundReplacementEnabled.
When a participant turns on background blurring with the 
Blur background button, the blur state is stored in their browser’s local storage. This state is reused for any subsequent conversations.
If the local storage of the participant’s browser doesn’t contain a blur state, new conversations start with blurring set according to the value of com.unblu.conversation.call.startWithVideoBackgroundReplacementEnabled. If the Blur background button is disabled, Unblu always uses the value of the configuration property.